Arkansas? Building Boom Keeps It Viable in Region

The Natural State rated No. 1 in nonfarm employment growth for construction jobs during the first quarter of 2000 at 4.4 percent, according to The Regional Economist.rThe Regional Economist, a review of business and economic conditions in the 8th Federal Reserve District, is published quarterly by the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis. A recent issue compared unemployment rates for the seven-state area that includes all of Arkansas and most of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.

The next-closest to Arkansas’ No. 1 ranking was Tennessee at 1.4, and the U.S. average was 3.4. Arkansas did not lead in job growth for any other industry.

Jeff Collins, director of the University of Arkansas’ Center for Economic Research, said it’s important to remember those figures represent new jobs and not the absolute number of jobs. Several of those states have more metropolitan areas and more overall construction jobs, but Arkansas’ are growing at a faster rate.

“Arkansas, and especially northwest Arkansas, is still in a boom,” Collins said. “You can look around and just see with all of the hospitals, housing developments and everything going up. We’ve had such a population influx, it’s not surprising to have such construction job-growth.”

Given the same regional and time parameters, Arkansas’ first-quarter unemployment rate of 4.1 percent was tied for fourth in the district with Kentucky. Mississippi, at 5.4 percent, was worst, followed by Illinois (4.5 percent) and Tennessee (4.2 percent).

As part of a general area slowdown, Arkansas’ new housing starts for fourth- quarter 2000 were down 18.3 percent from the same 1999 quarter. That was the biggest housing start decline in the 8th District, with only Kentucky’s 15.6 percent decline coming anywhere close.